(Technical Field)
The present invention relates to a vehicle driving assistance apparatus and a vehicle driving assistance method.
(Related Art)
Conventionally, various vehicle driving assistance techniques have been proposed for assisting a driver in driving his or her own vehicle. For example, a known technique as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-287162 is configured to detect a passing behavior of the own vehicle to pass a preceding vehicle, and based on a positional relationship between lanes of the own vehicle and the preceding vehicle during the passing behavior, determine whether or not the passing behavior is unsafe.
An event may occur where the own vehicle attempts to pass the preceding vehicle in a no-passing zone. To prevent occurrence of such an event, it is desirable to restrict passing in the no passing zone. For example, the technique as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-287162, however, does not restrict passing, but only determines whether or not the passing behavior of the own vehicle is unsafe after completion of passing.
In consideration of the foregoing, exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to providing vehicle driving assistance techniques for accurately determining whether or not the own vehicle is passing the preceding vehicle traveling ahead of the own vehicle, thereby providing proper driving assistance.